Hospital offers surgery to victim of acid attack
By Tian Xiuzhen (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-02-05 06:50

SHANGHAI: The victim disfigured in China's first recorded case of acid-throwing has undergone plastic surgery 19 years after her horrific ordeal.

Doctors repaired the eyebrows and eyelids on 24-year-old student, Lin Lin at Shanghai Punan Hospital in Pudong.

Lin Lin was five years old when her father's mistress Pan Li, threw two glasses of lethal sulfuric acid over her and her mother Lin Feng, as they slept in a hotel room.

Lin Lin's family had been unable to afford surgery but now the generosity of a Shanghai doctor may give her new hope of living a normal life.

"She is very brave and has a strong personality and that is why I want to help," said doctor Sheng Hongming, a returnee from Yokohama City University in Japan.

Sheng said he learned the story of Lin Lin after returning to Shanghai in June last year. He talked to his hospital managers who agreed to offer a series of free operations.

"Life has been unfair to this lovely girl. But as a doctor, it is my responsibility to help her to become confident about herself," Sheng said.

The first operation, which lasted 3 hours, was said to be successful.

"This will help Lin close her eyes which have been permanently open since the incident," Sheng said."Lin Lin will need at least 10 more operations to repair other parts of her face," he added.

The surgery will take two years to complete, and it will cost at least 300,000 yuan (US$36,300).

"The next operation will be conducted during the May Day holiday because we do not want the girl to miss too much of her studies," Sheng said.

In January 1986, Lin Lin and her mother were visiting Wu Han, the girl's father, who worked at a State-owned electromechanical company in Ningde city of Fujian Province during the winter vacation.

Wu had been having an affair with Pan Li who in a fit of jealously, burst into the mother and daughter's hotel room and threw the acid as they lay in bed.

Pan was arrested and sentenced to death. She was executed in May the same year. But the wounds she inflicted upon the two victims remain.

Lin Lin and her mother were both seriously burnt. But Lin Lin suffered the worst injuries. The acid disfigured her face, chin, neck and chest. Her hands were also badly burnt and subsequently deformed.

In the following year, Lin Lin and her mother moved to Shanghai to receive treatment in a military hospital in Nanhui District.

The mother later worked to support the girl who has been doing well at school. Today, Lin Lin is a full-time student at the East China University of Politics and Law.

"Lin is tough and always smiling. She is generous and always helps her mother. She is an inspiration to us all," Dr Sheng said.

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